Welfare chief pleads for help with care home jabs

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong on Saturday appealed to private doctors to help vaccinate elderly residents living in care homes, warning that many of them might die of Covid-19 if the coronavirus outbreak and vaccine take-up doesn’t increase rapidly.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Law said about 30 care homes had recently reported coronavirus cases, most of which involved staff members.

“Many elderly people living in care homes are over 80 years old. The vaccine take-up among them is very low. The situation is worrying because their risk is much higher if they contract Covid-19. If we cannot quickly vaccinate them and improve our isolation work, we may see a lot of death cases,” he said.

He said thousands of care home residents were waiting to receive the vaccine, but there are logistical difficulties as they live in many different care homes.

He added that rapid coronavirus tests would be distributed to care homes to detect cases early and prevent outbreaks.